John Brown 8 December β 27 March was a Scottish personal attendant and favourite of Queen Victoria for many years. He was appreciated by many including the Queen for his competence and companionship, and resented by others for his influence and informal manner. The exact nature of his relationship with Victoria was the subject of great speculation by contemporaries and remains controversial. Brown was born on 8 December at Crathienaird, Crathie and Braemar Aberdeenshire , to Margaret Leys and John Brown, [1] [2] and went to work as an outdoor servant in Scots ghillie or gillie at Balmoral Castle , which Queen Victoria and Prince Albert leased in February , and purchased outright in November Brown had several younger brothers and a sister, three of whom also entered the royal service.
Prince Albert's untimely death in was a shock from which Queen Victoria never fully recovered. John Brown became a good friend and supported the Queen. She also commissioned a portrait of him. Victoria's children and ministers resented the high regard she had for Brown, and inevitably, stories circulated that there was something improper in their relationship.
The diaries of Lewis Harcourt contain a report that one of the Queen's chaplains, Rev. Norman Macleod , made a deathbed confession repenting his action in presiding over Queen Victoria's marriage to John Brown.
It should be emphasised that Harcourt did not receive the confession directly he was nine when Macleod died but that it passed if it did from Macleod's sister to the wife of Henry Ponsonby, the Queen's private secretary, and thence to Harcourt's father Sir William Harcourt , then Home Secretary. Harcourt served as Home Secretary in the final three years of Brown's life. While it is true that some widowed monarchs have contracted private marriages with their servants, there is little evidence that Victoria married Brown.
Perhaps the most compelling evidence of the depth of Victoria and Brown's relationship comes from the pen of the Queen herself. A recently discovered letter written by Victoria shortly after Brown's death, to Viscount Cranbrook, reveals the true extent of the loss:. Strength of character as well as power of frame β the most fearless uprightness, kindness, sense of justice, honesty, independence and unselfishness combined with a tender, warm heart The Queen feels that life for the second time is become most trying and sad to bear deprived of all she so needs The phrase "life for the second time" relates to the death of her husband Prince Albert.
